Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-05-20

spoke of Egyptian Temples, the fifth of
the University of El Azhar, the sixth of
the Egyptian donkey, and now / would
bid good bye to Egypt by touching upon
the most marked features which make up
the general aspect OF this country in
March. These comprise the objects we
see, and their prevailing colors.
| can hardly convey to your readers the
tingling sense of delight with which we
found ourselves suddenly plunged from
the blue waves of our three days Mediter-
ranean voyage, into the apparently illimi-
table sea of green crops that were cover
ing the face of the Delta of the Nile on
our landing at Alexandria about March l.
The whole visible land glowed with an
intense summary green, for the wheat
was headed out, the barley nearly ready
to cut. The vast fields of horse beans
were over two feet high. The clover was
knee deep, flax was three inches high and
oats half grown. Not an idle or barren
acre was to be seen. Then the trees Only
three sorts, but these so marked. Tall
date palms. in groves of scattered trees
each 100 feet high and as smooth as pill
lar, yet tossing its gathered cluster of
graceful plumes from II to Is feet long on
every side, each first curvng upward
and then downward in its arch. Then,
long planted rows of large leaved round
headed "libbecks" dixie our bass or lin
den, but dropping with long pods min
| gled with their dense foliage), lined the
roads. While the Camel thorn" here
and there, dixie our red CEDAR produced
a contrast of exquisite tone and feathery
delicacy. And so it went on, and on, and
on, unfolding to us this matchless sheet
of green till before the month passed by,
we had seen this carpet to be 700 miles in
length and from 10 to 80 in breadth, and
on both sides of the Nile spreading out to
the hungry eyes of man II, 900 square
miles of matchless fertility, which sus
tains nation of five millions of men
Vermont sustains just one-fifteenth as
many per square mile. She has 10000
square miles and about 100000 popula
ton.
Though clouds and rain occur between
Cairo and the sea, yet for the 600 miles
southern point reached) it rarely rains
once year The sky is perpetually cloud
less day and night. A few weeks of this
and you naturally say, How marked are
these two features in the aspect of Egypt
and how universal, the green earth and
population dress in cotton of an indigo
| blue.
| A third feature is most prominent
Thanking the Nile valley all the way from
Nubia to Cairo are the desert brown ut
terly barren mountains. They are from
from the river about 10 miles apart. The
green strip with the Nile meandering
through it, is between these two ranges
| We see them honeycombed with tombs
from time to time. BY day they seem
shadOwy, and by moonlight they are
ghostly. They have delicacy of tint and
softness of outline that remind one of
piles of sand rather than rugged cliffs.
Yet they have cliffs of cinnamon brown.
| The rapid Nile too is always turbid, and
like our Missouri-brown. Again. scat
tered all over Egypt, on slightly swelling
artificial mounds, we found the native
towns were built. Every one of them of
brown Nile mud. Only in four towns are
there many light colored houses of stone,
| Alexandria, Cairo, Assiout and AssOuan.
Certainly there are 500 towns in Egypt
built of brown Nile mud bricks. This
was the sort that Pharaoh required the
children of Israel to make. Lastly the
or Egyptians are of deep coffee brown
complexion, and so, brown has an i'm
pOrtant place among the cOlors that mark
the aspect of Egypt.
| the f1ocks and herds are by thousands,
and they are mostly black. The cows are
black, the sheep are black So are the
goats and many dogs. Camels are yellow
and dOnkeys dark gray. There are no
horses IN the country, but only in Cairo
and Alexandria. No wheeled vehicle is
on the farms. No fence exists in Egypt.
All produce is gathered on the backs of
boundaries. The annual foundations
would destroy all fences and barns every
year. Hence there are none of either On
the fields, spaces are artifcially raised
above the height of the foundations near
every town, of so to $50 acres. On these
| ctoo lyn1 Ea1l
two months when the land is submerged
In March, however, these vast black herds
are pastured at large Each beast is teth.
cred to stake, but feet from him and
10 feet from his neighbours stake, the rope
being around the ankle of the animals
fore foot. 1t is an immense labor to move
each animal every other day. But the
fellaheen see to it. A row of 100 black
sheep and goats and gray donkeys and
yellow camels and black cows will be teth
cred to the edge of boundless and mag
nificent field of green clover, at the above
spacings. Every two days each one eats
his breadth clean to the ground He
tramps on none, and wastes none. Think
OF the economy to country to be able tc
dispense with fences wholly True il
takes time to retether the focks every
TWO days, but it is done-and the long
rows of black animals, standing so duti
fully to their tasks of judiclous feeding
are one more very prominent feature in
the aspect of Egypt in March. And so
Mr.; Editor, we recapitulate the objects
and colors, and we say that to our eyes
which in March usually see the white OF
the snow. and the blue of the sky and the
gray of the clouds, it is vivid contrast
to see in Egypt, the sweep of green in the
land, the vault of heavens blue, and the
blue costumes of the whole nation the
varied brown of the Nile-the mud town.
and the intersecting miles ON miles o.
canal banks as well as the coffee browns
of the faces of the people, and the BLACK
OF the fiocks and herds. These tints ant
colors are literally everywhere, and tn,
aspect of the country is marked accord
ingly.
THEODORE A. HOPKINS
THE IRISH QUESTION.